Building and launching an online store might seem like a great business idea. But that’s only a starting point. The great adventure begins once you go on to implement the right strategy to promote your website and generate more sales.

From personalisation through cross-selling to social media ads – there are many ways to attract and retain more visitors. If everything goes well, at some point you may decide that it’s time to take your e-commerce business abroad and cater for the needs of new buyers. And that’s where localisation comes in.

1. Achieving wider global reach 

To prepare your e-commerce website for the global journey, you’ll need to adjust the content to your target markets. Simply publishing your product description in English won’t be enough to gain trust of your international visitors. A mere translation of your website won’t hit the spot either. To achieve a global reach and keep your customers coming back you’ll need powerful and culturally relevant content.

Localisation and cultural adaptation will help you achieve this goal and make your website ready for visitors from different countries. Whether you want to become a truly global e-commerce business or target only two or three markets – with localisation you can easily push the physical distance to the background and build local presence. Using a native language of your target visitors and adapting items such as payment methods or shipping methods to their needs will help you reach more buyers and eventually increase the conversion rate of your website.

2. Increasing your customer confidence

As many as 42% of Internet users never make any purchase decisions in languages different than their native language. So, to attract buyers from abroad you’ll need to make sure your e-commerce website is translated and localised into their language. This is how you’ll boost comfort level and gain trust of your visitors. Of course, content quality plays a crucial role, so you’ll need to work with a professional localisation team that understands your goals, mission and strategy. A correctly and effectively localised website will help you build loyalty and strong relationship with your online shoppers. Add to it post-sales support in their native language and you can gain even more repeat business.

 3. Building personalised shopping experience

Your potential customers might be already used to receiving recommendations based on their previous purchases or finding special birthday coupons in their inbox. Many online stores use personalisation to gain trust or engage with their customers. But to take this experience to the next level, you’ll need to focus on more aspects than just date of birth or recently viewed products. Culture and language of your online visitors make a huge difference as well.

By providing your e-commerce website in the language of your visitors and including some references to their culture you can further personalise their shopping experience. Such cultural references may include promotions for local holidays or visuals with habits or traditions cultivated in the country of your target customers. In this way you can create an image of a locally present brand and make the purchasing process more pleasant.

A localised e-commerce website means more opportunities and higher likelihood of increasing your sales. To make this adventure worthwhile, research your target markets first and promote your multilingual website through the channels that appeal to your target customers.

Dorota Pawlak

Dorota helps digital brands infuse their content with a local touch. She is a localization consultant, translator specialized in IT, prompt engineer, and a book author. Dorota teaches online courses on localization, writes for her blog and a Medium publication. She also runs a Small Biz AI, a Substack newsletter for freelancers and small business owners ready to discover handy AI tools.